SPORTS
Friday night drags name summer series winners
Chance Brackeen completed a rare undefeated season en route to being crowned one of seven division champions in the final week of the 10th anniversary season of Universal Technical Institute Friday Night Drags at Texas Motor Speedway.
Brackeen, of Saginaw, drove his 2015 Ford Mustang to victory in each of the six weeks of competition to capture the Reunion Tower GeO-Dec Bandit Division championship. He was one of four drivers that had clinched their division prior to last week’s season finale while three of the divisions were settled that evening of the summer amateur racing series.
The Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman, Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Modified and Texas Harley-Davidson Super Car divisions were all decided by the eventual champion winning the final week of competition to secure the title.
Universal Technical Institute Friday Night Drags, which has spent the last 10 years promoting legal street racing at the speedway in an effort to provide a safer alternative off public roadways in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, had more than 900 unique competitors and close to 29,000 spectators visit Texas Motor Speedway during the past six weeks. The number of unique competitors established a record for the program while the crowd count was just shy of the record set in 2017.
“I was really impressed with not only the amount of cars we had competing each week, but the amount of support they were being shown by our incredible fans,” Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said. “I think that’s a testament to the quality of the product these competitors are able to showcase. This program only continues to grow and I’m already looking forward to what’s to come in 2019.”
To see the full list of season winners in each category, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Lady Indians beat Saint Jo at home on Saturday morning.
The Lady Indians won 16-1 after four innings due to run-rule against the smaller school.
Nocona was coming off a competitive loss at Collinsville earlier in the week while the Lady Panthers were hoping to compete after a busy week of their athletes doing everything else besides just softball.
The Lady Indians easily won the first matchup between the teams in March, 19-2 and it was more of the same on Saturday.
Saint Jo struck first to start the game off well. Jordyn O’Neal hit a one out single. Krista Reeves followed with a walk after O’Neal had stolen second base and had advanced to third thanks to an error trying to throw her out. A wild pitch then allowed her to score to put the Lady Panthers up 1-0.
The lead did not last long. Nocona’s first two batters drew walks which set up Abby Hill to drive them both in with a single to right field.
Despite giving up a single and a walk later in the inning, Saint Jo’s defense did not allow another run. A line out and groundout to the shortstop while picking off a runner attempting to steal got the Lady Panthers out of the inning unscarred.
The Lady Indians led 2-1.
That was about as competitive as it got. In the second inning, Nocona’s bats got going. Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases up with no outs.
Reagan Phipps drew a walk that drove in a run. Hill hit another two RBI single. Skye Kirby followed with a two RBI double.
After the first out, Allie Sutton drove in one run with a single. There was a fly out for out two, before a runner came in to score after a passed ball. Finally, an error allowed two more runs to score on the base paths.
Nocona had scored nine runs and led 11-1 to break the game open heading into the third inning.
Taylor Patrick hit a double, with O’Neal and Reeves following with singles. Unfortunately for Saint Jo, Patrick was thrown out before the hits attempting to steal a base so the Lady Panthers scored no runs from this.
The Lady Indians kept pouring on the runs. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases up with no outs. Tinley Cable then hit an RBI single. Shelby Swell was hit by a pitch that drove in another run.
After two strikeouts, Evelyn Marquez drove in two more runs on a double to put Nocona up 15-1, coming up one run short of ending the game early.
The Lady Indians scored that one run in the fourth inning. After Phipps drew a leadoff walk, Hill hit a triple that drove her in to end the game.
Nocona won 16-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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